THE FAMILY, THE HOME 129 



a form of atavism, developed within the horde, 

 group, tribe, or clan, after these social aggregates had 

 supplanted the primitive family, by being of higher 

 survival value. How could this come to pass ? 



When the use of clubs and missiles had developed 

 the predatory type of men who preyed upon their 

 own race (see Chapter IX) the existence of family 

 groups, each consisting of a helpless woman and her 

 children, from which the able-bodied male had to 

 absent himself to go in search of food, became exceed- 

 ingly precarious and they were liable to be wiped out 

 suddenly or scattered. 



The members of numerous family groups, which 

 in time of peace had spread over considerable terri- 

 tory, in escaping from their predatory fellow men, 

 by running away in many different directions, would 

 tend to meet at places where topographical difficul- 

 ties interfered with further flight, or forced them to 

 make changes in the direction of it, or where the 

 finding of water or food caused them to halt. Out 

 of these accidental gatherings groups, hordes, tribes, 

 and clans may have been formed. 



The primary conditions of these primitive human 

 communities must have been very unfavorable to 

 the continuation of family relations. Privacy if 

 not absolutely impossible within them was nearly 

 so. And this applies equally to the daily presence 

 of the father. Without these there can, however, be 

 no continuous family relations. 



The state of warfare which produced these primi- 



